Not Applicable.
Not Applicable.
This invention relates to personal hand-held dictation recorders, specifically to an improved method for providing cue-and-review indexing and prompting functions during dictation and transcription.
Dictation recorders, often also referred to as dictating machines, have appeared in many forms. Early forms were bulky desk units operated by controls located on a cable-attached hand-held microphone. Later manifestations have included hand-held tape recorders (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,227,222 to Sato and Kobayashi, 1980), central dictation systems (e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,936,805 to Bringol, et al., 1976, and 4,041,249 to Matz and Foster, 1977), digital dictation systems (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,627 to Sweet, et.al., 1993), and personal computer dictation systems (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,052 to Schroder, et al., 1993).
Dictation recorders have typically differed from conventional tape recorders in two particular ways. First, since dictation is by nature a repeating start-stop-rewind-play process, dictation recorders require a means to easily facilitate that process. Early dictation recorders incorporated separate buttons or switches for these functions. Later embodiments overcame the clumsiness of the multiple buttons by incorporating all these functions into a single-button slider switch (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,714 to Kobayashi, 1979).
Second, since the dictation recording must typically be transcribed, early dictation recorders included a means to record embedded indexing or cuing signals within the dictation recording to facilitate the transcription process. These embedded signals provided demarcations between recorded dictation segments and thus facilitated providing embedded instructions for the transcriptionist during later playback. Early dictation recorders incorporated a separate cue button that when pressed would record these cuing signals on the recording medium. Later recorders included this cue-signal recording feature as an additional function of the single-button slider switch (ibid., Kobayashi, 1979).
Even in their most complex embodiments, however, early patent designs for the recording of embedded cuing or indexing signals focused only on facilitating the transcription process, not the dictation process (e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,869,720 Ohira and Takahashi, 1975; 3,972,071 to Arrington, 1976; 4,007,491 to Bolick and Fleming, 1977; 4,041,249 to Matz and Foster, 1977; 4,051,540 to Wilder, et.al., 1977; 4,200,893 to Matison, 1980; 4,224,644 to Lewis and Blum, 1980; 4,343,039 to Smith and Mason, 1982; 4,352,173 to Titus and Bagley, 1982; 4,410,923 to Patel, 1983; etc.).
When prior-art designs for the recording of embedded cuing signals did consider the needs of the dictator, they focused on providing a means for the dictator to locate dictation-segment starting points within the dictation recording (e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,812,940 to Takenaga, 1989; 4,224,644 to Lewis, 1980; 4,200,893 to Matison, 1980; etc.). A byproduct of most of these cue-signal designs was that the dictator could record instructions for the transcriptionist at the beginning of each cue-signal-demarcated dictation segment (e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,760,124 to Gaven, 1973; 3,827,079 to Bolick, 1974; 3,881,072 to Becker, 1975; 4,051,540 to Wilder, et.al., 1977; 4,410,923 to Patel, 1983; etc.).
While many prior-art designs thus benefitted the dictator""s cue-and-review processes by making it easier to locate and review specific recorded dictation segments, none of these designs provided assistance to the dictator during the initial dictation of those segments. None of the prior-art designs provided a tool to assist the dictator in logically framing his or her thoughts and dictating them in the first place in an orderly way. None of these designs facilitated dictation in conformance with lengthy standardized forms and templates. In summary, early prior-art embedded dictation-index-signal designs focused on facilitating dictation transcription rather than dictation itself. Later prior-art designs provided a means to use embedded index signals to facilitate dictation recording cue and review during a dictation session. All prior-art embedded dictation-index-signal designs are limited to assisting a dictator in post-dictation recording cue and review and to assisting a transcriber in post-dictation transcription. These prior-art designs all provide utility only after a dictation segment is recorded. None of the prior-art designs provide utility for assisting a dictator beforehand with the organization or structure of the material or content to be dictated. None of the prior-art designs provide any means to prompt the dictator beforehand with the next dictation segment topic when dictating in conformance with standardized forms and templates.
Especially in highly complex and heavily regulated fields (e.g., medicine, insurance, law, government, etc.). dictators are increasingly finding it helpful or even necessary to dictate lengthy documents according to strict and elaborate forms or templates. A dictator may refer to printed copies of these forms and templates during dictation, but keeping up with and using them when out of the office is difficult. Dictating without the printed forms or templates is also subject to errors and omissions, especially when the templates change frequently or when the dictator must dictate to several different ones. Further, printed forms and templates are difficult to personalize.
Accordingly, the primary objects and advantages of this invention are to provide the dictating user of personal hand-held dictation recorders with a means:
(a) to prerecord and save a readily available and reusable personalized dictation template in the form of corresponding personally recorded voice-prompt dictation cues,
(b) to retrieve and audibly replay these prerecorded voice-prompt dictation cues during any later dictation recording session as a means to dictation in concert with those cues, and
(c) to use the replayed voice-prompt dictation cues collectively as an aid to dictation in conformance with a corresponding list, outline, instruction set, or standard form.
Further objects and advantages of this invention are to provide the dictating user of personal hand-held dictation recorders with a means;
(a) to flexibly delete, revise, or replace any number or all of the voice-prompt dictation cues for any previously recorded voice-prompt dictation template,
(b) to electronically index and link each of the voice-prompt dictation cues to its corresponding dictation session recorded segment,
(c) to automatically audibly replay the corresponding dictation-segment-specific voice-prompt when a dictated segment is cued in a cue-and-review process,
(d) to be thus reminded of the content of each voice-prompt-specific recorded dictation segment without having to replay any part of that segment,
(e) to optionally direct and enable each of the voice-prompt dictation cues to be automatically included as the first integral part of its corresponding dictation session recorded segment,
(f) to thus optionally direct and enable each of the voice-prompt dictation cues to be automatically included as part and parcel of the final total dictation recording, and
(g) to thereby provide a transcriptionist with standardized content or cues to be used in typing paragraph or section titles or headers during the dictation transcription process.
Still further objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from a consideration of the drawings and ensuing description.
In accordance with the present invention, an improvement to personal hand-held dictation recorders wherein the improvement comprises a method for separately and independently recording and storing and, during any later dictation recording session, separately retrieving and audibly replaying multiple dictation-indexing voice-prompt dictation cues as a means to aid dictation in conformance with a corresponding list, outline, instruction set, or standard form represented by the voice-prompt cues.